Rameshwaram a place less travelled....

I recently visited Rameshwaram also popularly referred as the 'Benaras of the south'. In order to attain Moksha it is believed that the visit to Rameshwaram is mandatory. I was there to offer prayers for my father’s soul to attain moksha. Rameshwaram is significant for the Hindus as a pilgrimage. Rameshwaram is the place from where Lord Rama, built a bridge across the sea to rescue his consort Sita, from her abductor, Ravana. This is also the place where Rama worshipped Lord Shiva to cleanse away the sin of killing Ravana.
We started by train from Chennai to reach Rameshwaram it must have been close to 12 hrs journey before we reach Rameshwaram in the wee hours of the morning. I had already booked for my stay at the Tamilnadu hotel at Rameshwaram from Chennai. So we got into an auto and landed straight into the hotel. I was shocked at seeing the hotel for it had pigs roaming around freely. Having come from Chennai and for its swine flue hype, I was in for a shock because no one actually cared about it. Having lodged into our rooms we got to meet the gurukal who was to do the pooja .He actually suggested us that the best way of doing the pooja was to go to Dhanushkodi . Danushkodi is named after Rama's bow, is at the eastern end of the island at a distance of 8 kms from Rameshwaram. Dhanushkodi was completely destroyed by the cyclones of 1964. One has to reach Dhanushkodi on foot along sea shore or in jeeps on sand dunes. I thought it was going to be a easy ride. Man I was totally in for a shock first with the jeep in which we travelled and then the place it was completely secluded and was devoid of neither human existence nor living beings. Haunting Yet appealing, deserted but still full of life,— Dhanushkodi is full of contradictions. But once we reached the spot I was completely take back by what I saw first. It is a sure delight if you have a penchant for impossibly blue seas, pristine white sands and ruins by the shore. the nearest telephone about 20 km away, out of reach of mobile signals and the feeling of being in a place which was once alive, now reduced to rubble, makes it a place truly less travelled. The road that leads to the land's end is lined with casuarina and the sea on either side. A ride down this 18 km-long, impeccably straight road leading to the ruins of a township is an exciting experience by itself. We travelled along with the grukual who told us that the Confluence of Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean happens here and that make the dip in the water very holy. This natural phenomenon has a lot of significance and most people revere the thought and hope to attain salvation as a culmination of their prayer, sacrifice and penance in this holy place. After performing the pooja and offering on our way back to the temple we stopped at Gandamadana Parvatham Situated atop a mound, the temple is known for Rama's footprints. This is also the place where Hanuman is said to made a great leap to Sri Lanka. The temple is two-story on which the sanctum is on the ground floor. From the balcony upstairs, Ramanathaswamy temple can be seen, as welll as northern tip of Sri Lanka. After visiting the temple and taking photographs we started back to Rameshwaram to visit the Ramnathswamy temple . This temple built in the 17th century and is famous for its 1200 gigantic granite columns. The 54 metre tall gopuram (gate-tower), 1220 metres of magnificent corridors and the flamboyant columns embellish and render fame to the temple. The water in each of the 22) sacred wells (the 22nd being the ocean itself) in the temple tastes different. We paid 300 Rupees to the bucketeer to dump water from each well to secure blessings. The water from each well is said to bless you in some way. After performing the pooja we moved backed to the hotel stayed there for a while and moved out of Rameshwaram on the same day. As children we had to do this to our father and it was the holiest of experience to be at Rameshwaram.

Ganesha Pilllayar

Ganesha/Pillayar

Many a time I have wondered why Ganesha or Pillyar had a different face, he is considered to be the god of beginning. He is the starting point of any activity but then why and how did the elephant head come into was question that I was dying to find out, my search on the net yielded me this story and I am happy to share the same with you all.

Hindu mythology presents many stories, which explain how Ganesha obtained his elephant or gaja head. Often, the origin of this particular attribute is to be found in the same anecdotes which tell about his birth. The stories also reveal the origins of the enormous popularity of his cult. Devotees sometimes interpret his elephant head as indicating intelligence, discriminative power, fidelity, or other attributes thought to be had by elephants. The large elephant ears are said to denote wisdom and the ability to listen to people who seek help.

The most well-known story is probably the one taken from the Shiva Purana. Once, while his mother Parvati wanted to take a bath, there were no attendants around to guard her and stop anyone from accidentally entering the house. Hence she created an image of a boy out of turmeric paste which she prepared to cleanse her body (turmeric was used for its antiseptic and cooling properties), and infused life into it, and thus Ganesha was born. Parvati ordered Ganesha not to allow anyone to enter the house, and Ganesha obediently followed his mother's orders. After a while Shiva returned from outside, and as he tried to enter the house, Ganesha stopped him. Shiva was infuriated at this strange little boy who dared to challenge him. He told Ganesha that he was Parvati's husband, and demanded that Ganesha let him go in. But Ganesha would not hear any person's word other than his dear mother's. Shiva lost his patience and had a fierce battle with Ganesha. At last he severed Ganesha's head with his trishula. When Parvati came out and saw her son's lifeless body, she was very angry and sad. She demanded that Shiva restore Ganesha's life at once.

Unfortunately, Shiva's trishula was so powerful that it had hurled Ganesha's head very far off. All attempts to find the head were in vain. As a last resort, Shiva approached Brahma who suggested that he replace Ganesha's head with the first living being that came his way which lay with its head facing north. Shiva then sent his celestial armies (Gana) to find and take the head of whatever creature they happened to find asleep with its head facing north. They found a dying elephant which slept in this manner, and after its death took its head, attaching the elephant's head to Ganesha's body and bringing him back to life. From then on, he was called Ganapathi, head of the celestial armies, and was to be worshipped by everyone before beginning any activity.

For the Love of Teaching…..,

People are born to learn. If you urinate on an electric fence, the education you get is immediate and requires no classes or homework or teachers. When the lesson is packaged in an irresistible and appealing form students devour and absorb it instantly, because its human nature to learn.

But most of the time teachers make learning boring and unappealing.

Anyone could open a book and read the text. But that person would be sunk in no time. There is an art to teaching. It is about teaching the students, not the material. You have to know who you are as an educator, and who your students are as learners. There is a delicate mixing and melding of 45 to 60 personalities in one classroom. Each teacher has his or her own strengths, interests, and yes, biases. Each Student has their own expectations, fears, and previous school/college experiences. There are a million considerations to make before deciding that this lesson will be taught on this day and taught in this way.

It is not enough for a teacher to show up each morning and dispense facts. Student need to learn how to get along in a society. They need to know how to make and keep friends, how to handle conflicts with their peers, and how to ask for help. They need to know that you believe in them, and that they can trust you. They do not want to fail, they do not want to be embarrassed, they want to be successful.

Teaching is an act of compassion. We are not here for the big money (because we spend much of our paycheck to better our classroom), we are not here for the prestige (because the younger the Student you teach, the less society recognizes your impact as a professional.) We are here because we have faith. Each year we show up, as the Student do, believing that this year will be a new adventure. We anticipate the arrival of our students. We plan, polish, and prepare. We are ambassadors to these Student’s futures. And we love what we do.

Yes, unfortunately, I have run into a few teachers who were there for the power of standing in a room and commanding the attention of 60 young people. But, please trust me when I say that these teachers are very few and far between. The vast majority of us are here because we believe that we can make a difference. It is an act of love and a lesson in hope. We can teach Student to read, write, and compute, but also hope that we have taught them to be responsible members of society. We can teach Student how to sound out a word, but we also hope that we taught them to think critically about what they are reading. There is a love for those students that you meet on the first day each year, there is the love of the profession that you have chosen, and there is a hope that what you are doing has changed a child’s life for the better.

The art of teaching comes from knowing your class and being able to transform a room of strangers into a community who honor each other. But the heart of teaching comes from each of us believing that each child can be successful, and striving to make our students a part of a better future.

I have had the privilege of growing, being associated with such wonderful people who transform the future of the younger generation and wish the community has almost everyone to have the same perspective towards teaching.

Happy Teaching!!!!!

A proud Indian

Today when I sit down to blog my views on independence I spare a thought for all those who had to fight for this basic freedom of expression. Yes without their toil and sacrifice I guess this blog wouldn’t be possible. Indians and India have a long list of credits to their side. A small collection of such facts to remember how proud an Indian I am. As rightly said and I quote “Albert Einstein said: We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made”. A list of things which would make every Indian Proud!!!!!
India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous civilization.
India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.
India is the world's largest democracy.
India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
The World's first university was established in Takshashila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software- a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987.
Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization.
Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth.
Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days.
Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 10**12(10 to the power of 12).
Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.
When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).
The four religions born in India, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.
The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.
India is one of the few countries in the World, which gained independence without violence.
India is the largest English speaking nation in the world.
India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built a super computer indigenously.

Captain Cool, In the Line of Fire

It is hard being the captain of a cricket team that represents a nation of 1 billion-plus people and Mahendra Singh Dhoni discovered it the hard way on Sunday when his team lost to England by 3 runs - a loss that proved costly as it booted them out of the Twenty20 World Cup tournament. This team has been fantastic in the last couple of years and they should have won this tournament. Was Dhoni boys were wholesomely tired coming from South Africa to India to England or cripplingly fatigued from the game itself, or was it a tactical Blunder on his part. If I were to be asked as a cricket loving fan I would say it was the later. Right from his decision to bowl first to sending Ravindra Jadeja up the order at number four ahead of Yuvraj Singh, "gambles" taken by Dhoni in what was a do-or-die match all was a recipe for disaster. "Perhaps the team got it all wrong with the batting strategy and the way they played the short ball. I don't think they were prepared for [the short-pitched bowling] at all and it caught them cold. As“Dhoni asserted that it’s “not the end of the road”. Of course, it isn’t, but Team India could well end up on the same path if the many lessons aren’t learnt quickly.

"Cricket never tests your character when you are doing really well. It tests you when you are not doing well.

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